


What’s a Birthday Without Some Mystery?

by Bonfoi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, EWE, F/M, Humor, M/M, Mystery, OOC-ness, Other, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 09:03:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bonfoi/pseuds/Bonfoi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus thought he was going to have a normal birthday that year.  Then he received a mysterious scroll...</p>
            </blockquote>





	What’s a Birthday Without Some Mystery?

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** Just a little something for our favourite werewolf, and his favourite Potions Master. Happiest of birthdays, belatedly, Remus Lupin! (2012) _Minor editing 12-17-12._
> 
> * * *

§¤§¤*§*¤§¤§ 

**_Disclaimer:_** The world of Harry Potter, its characters and settings are the copyrighted works of J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., her publishing companies and affiliates. No profit was made from the writing of this story nor was any malice intended in any way, shape or form to the author or the actors/actresses who so brilliantly have brought them to life. 

This author is not responsible for underage readers. Please observe the ratings, warnings, and age of legal consent for your country.

§¤§¤*§*¤§¤§ 

> _L.,_
> 
> _I see it’s once again the day of your nativity. A wish for this day, then:_
> 
> _May you receive what you so rightly deserve._
> 
> _S._

Remus turned the scroll over and over in his hands. The owl that had dropped it on his table had narrowly missed dunking it into his porridge. He’d swear the beast had been disappointed that it had missed.

“What in the world is someone doing mimicking Severus’ style? After all this time?” he muttered under his breath.

“Dad? Dad, can I go to Harry’s this afternoon?” Remus looked up and put the scroll in his pocket, a smile twitching his lips.

Teddy ran into the kitchen, hair damp but combed—and a screaming shade of turquoise—clothes remarkably buttoned correctly. He skidded to a stop at Remus’ side. “So, can I? Harry said he’d take me the Wimbourne Wasp Spring Camp for an hour.” The eight-year-old boy’s body fairly quivered with contained excitement as he rocked on his feet.

“I told you last night, after your godfather Floo-called, yes.” Remus smiled widely as Teddy flung his arms around him and hugged him tight.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dad!” 

Remus stood up, Teddy hanging from his neck like a monkey—as the tail he’d grown showed—and walked toward the Floo. Teddy watched him grab a pinch Floo Powder and then toss it onto the coals. They looked at each other and then Remus nodded, and Teddy called out, “Godric’s Rest!” The green flames flared and settled and then Harry’s head appeared in them.

“Remus, Teddy! Ginny’s just getting the kids ready and I’ve got the picnic all ready packed. Come on through, you two.” 

“Teddy’s coming, Harry. I, unfortunately, have to do some work so I can actually attend my birthday party tonight.” Teddy giggled and squirmed out of Remus’ arms.

“Push me, Dad,” he said and with Remus’ help he launched into and through the Floo to Harry. Once the boy was safe on the other side, Harry stuck his head back in.

“We’ll see you at seven, then?” he asked.

“Aye, you will. Now, go on. Have a wonderful afternoon!” Remus waved, and Teddy waved back as the green flames died down and then out.

~)*(~

Remus leaned back and blinked. Translating and restoring ancient tomes and manuscripts was tedious work sometimes. He groaned as he stretched his arms over his head and rolled his neck, popping the vertebra that had gotten stuck as he didn’t move for over three hours.

The cuckoo clock he’d picked up at a boot sale sang out at 3:05, the five-minutes-late quirk that endeared it to both Remus and Teddy. He summoned a thin cloth to cover the works on his desk and pushed himself away from it.

Stepping out into the hallway, Remus heard the scritch-hoot of a post-owl attempting to deliver something. He walked quickly into the kitchen and saw the owl, the same haughty thing from earlier in the day, was carrying an awkwardly-shaped parcel, one that wouldn’t fit through the warded opening. He grinned and pushed open the window below the post-owl.

“You can drop it. I’ll catch it and then you can come in for a lovely treat,” Remus said softly. He held his arms out. The owl quirked one eyebrow—something that looked awfully familiar—and released the parcel. Remus caught it and felt the hooked-behind-the-navel, vertiginous sensation of a Port-key activating.

He landed awkwardly. “Oof!” The package fell away from him and rolled to a stop at the feet of someone standing in a magicked darkness.

“What the hell?!” Remus bit out as he surged to his feet. He reached for his wand...

“ _Expelliarmus!_ ” Remus’ wand flew from the wand pocket of his denims and into the shadowy figure’s hand. “You’d think you would have learned something during that last war...Lupin,” it said in a raspy voice.

Remus took a step forward. “Severus? You’re alive?” He reached out.

“Ah-ah, Lupin. I said you’d receive what you deserve. I didn’t say anything about a Severus.”

Remus crossed his arms and cast a dark look at the shadowy figure. “I’d say I deserve Severus Snape’s presence in my life after all the hardships and heartaches we went through.”

The shadow man laughed. It was low and rough and unlike Severus’ rare laughter. “Do you think he feels the same way?”

“I do. Severus Snape was nothing if not a man honest with himself.” Remus balanced on the balls of his feet and jumped at the breathing shadow.

“Hey, now!” The shadowy figure turned out to be quite solid when one is attempting to throttle it. “Bloody hell! That’s uncalled for!”

“Cease your spell and I might let go.” Remus shook the man he couldn’t see until the shadows hiding him were dispelled.

Remus found himself with an armful of Lucius Malfoy and he banged the man’s skull against the ground for letting him think it was Severus behind the ploy. “You ignorant swot! Fucking with my life again!”

Pale hands scrabbled at Remus’ wrists until Lucius could croak out, “He’s at the manor.” Remus left off choking Lucius and sat on the man’s abdomen, still making it difficult of Malfoy to draw a breath.

“Why should I believe you?”

“Left pocket, inside,” Lucius gasped out. He did look a bit green and white around the gills.

Remus searched him and found a note, this time definitely in Severus’ hand.

> Lucius,
> 
> It’s time and more that I should have rejoined the Wizarding World. We’ve talked about my prospects and I’ve decided to see if Lupin is willing to put the past behind us. If he, and his son, are amenable, I will become part of their lives, and the British Wizarding World. If not, I shall take myself off to that damned chateau you’re always trying to send me to.
> 
> ~ Severus

Remus leaned up on his knees and sat down, hard. Lucius’ eyes crossed and he coughed and moaned all at once. “Where is he? Where is my Severus?” he asked with a growl. 

~)*(~

Severus knocked on the door of the Potter home, and waited. And waited. Then he knocked again. Still nothing. If Granger-Weasley had taken on the less savory humour of her husband’s family...

“Oh, hello.” A little boy, hair just as wild as his father’s looked at Severus from a nearby open window. “We just got back from the Wimbourne Wasps. Do you like Quidditch?”

A turquoise-haired boy popped up beside the other one in the window. “James, it’s time for me to go—You’re Mr. Snape!” The boy’s hair changed suddenly into a dead accurate copy of Severus’, right down to the white streak on the left side. “Oh, Merlin!” he breathed out. “Will Dad be gobsmacked when I tell him I met you here!” The boy slipped away, yelling, “Harry, Harry, I met Mr. Snape! He doesn’t look that scary.”

Smirking to himself, Severus put his hands behind his back and surveyed the Potter home with kinder eyes. “Is what Teddy said true? Are you Mr. Snape?” the boy in the window asked in hushed tones. “Daddy says you’re brave.”

“I am Severus Snape. Whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?” He let his hands fall to his side, stepped toward the window and then stuck out his hand in greeting. The boy put his hand out and almost quivered when Severus shook it in a manly fashion.

“I’m James Potter, sir.” The boy looked over his shoulder and then leaned out the window, their handshake falling apart. “Daddy’s coming. He’s going to be glad to see you.” He disappeared with a grin that forcibly reminded Severus of Harry Potter, his grandfather and, happily, his grandmother Potter. 

The door opened and Harry Potter stood blinking on the other side of door jamb. “It’s really you,” he whispered. Then he turned his head and roared, “Ginny, Floo your mother, Snape is back!”

~)*(~

Severus found himself surrounded by Potters large and small, several Weasleys—Molly, George, Angelina, and Bill—while Ginny set up a veritable feast in her kitchen. There was much back-slapping, restrained sneering and then, when Draco Malfoy stumbled through the Floo with smile, loud and fulsome chatter.

“Oh, won’t Remus be tickled pink when he sees you?” Molly said with a laugh as she steered Severus toward the back garden. Once they were outside they headed for a bench just steps away from a mound of lilies of the valley. “You know he asked for you when they found out he’d survived?” she asked with a sly glance.

“No. I’ve been a guest of the Malfoys for quite a while.” Severus swallowed and then turned his head to look at the witch at his side. “I do apologize for—”

“Nothing you need to apologize for, Severus.” Molly patted Severus’ knee. “If you’d talked to me after the battle, I might have said differently, but time, and my grandchildren—and Harry—have convinced me that you did what had to be done.” She turned and caught Severus’ eye. “What you did took courage, and heart, Severus Snape. I may not understand the whys and wherefores but I do know I admire a brave man.” She stood up and tugged Severus to his feet. “Now why don’t we go inside and wait for seven o’clock and Remus?”

~)*(~

Once he’d gotten what information he could out of Malfoy, Remus had summoned his wand from under Lucius’ bum. He bound the other wizard with thin, strong ropes and then shook his head. “I shouldn’t be doing this, but I’ll send someone back to free you when I get home.”

“Just send my wife. Draco will lecture me on the danger of interfering so theatrically, and how unSlytherin it was.” The blond rolled his eyes. “It’s more mortifying than getting ambushed by someone you thought you had at your mercy.”

Remus chuckled and shook his head. “Did you have a reason to do this, Malfoy?” he asked.

“I’ve seen Severus brought low by emotions before. I wanted to make certain that my friend, the only one that matters besides my wife and child, will be well taken care of by someone who values him as he should.” Lucius’ cheeks were tinged with pink. “He deserves some happiness.”

“You could have just asked, you know. I have access to a Pensieve. I could have showed you just how much he means to me. Tonks knew I was in love with him and she agreed to carry our son. In friendship.”

“You’re telling me that young Theodore, the apple of my wife’s sister’s eye is not just your son?” Lucius asked, his eyes wide in shock. “When did...?”

“Severus created a potion that allowed us to both be fathers, after the Muggle idea of in vitro fertilization. Tonks was adamant she didn’t want to be a mother, but by carrying Teddy she killed two birds with one stone: her mother had a titular grandchild and Severus and I had our child.” Remus shook his head. “The boy has three parents, and he actually knows it, since her magic imprinted on him in that oh-so-obvious manner.”

Lucius looked up and shrugged his bound shoulders. “You would have been right at home in Slytherin,” he huffed, “if not for that moon madness you suffer.” He squirmed and then sighed when Remus cast a cushioning charm under his arse. “Thank you for that.”

“Now, Narcissa should be at home. Tell her I’m in Ambrosius Lane, on the farm. She’ll know where that is. Our Floo address is Foy de Mal. Just wait one minute and someone will answer. Now, do give my regards to Severus, won’t you?”

Remus laughed. “You know, Malfoy, I could get to tolerate you.” He winked and Apparated away.

Staring at where Remus had disappeared, Lucius murmured, “I could tolerate you, too, Lupin. You may be just what Severus deserves as well.”

~)*(~

Remus rolled his neck and shook his head. For a tame werewolf who translated books and things, his life was still filled with mystery and adventure. He wasn’t certain if he liked it that way, but if it got him Severus back in his arms, he’d make do.

He ran up the stairs and into his room, tearing at his clothes. Then he remembered that he had to send Narcissa Malfoy to release her husband. He opened the small cloisonné box that Lily had given him and took out a pinch of Floo powder. He tossed it into his bedroom fireplace and yelled out the address just as Lucius had told him to.

Once the flames had flared up, he waited impatiently, his shirt unbuttoned, his chest heaving. When Narcissa Malfoy’s face appeared, at first she seemed shocked and then slightly titillated. At least until Remus told her Lucius was bound and sitting on the ground.

“You’re telling me you left my husband out in the wilds? Without his wand at hand?” she asked darkly.

“Well, I did add a protective charm onto that cushioning charm I did for him.” Remus looked anywhere but at the green head floating in his fireplace.

“Well, where is he then?” she demanded.

“Before I tell you I just want you to know he was trying to do something for Severus. If I could hazard a guess, he wanted to see if I was worthy of Severus.” Remus sat back on his heels.

“Oh, you men!” Narcissa moved and her head grew bigger. “Always doing the hard thing. Just tell me where Lucius is so I can free him.”

“He’s in Ambrosius Lane, on the farm. He said that would mean something to you.” Remus waited. 

“That devilish man.” Narcissa smiled and Remus saw how much Tonks had shared with the rest of the Blacks in that respect. “That was where he took me on our honeymoon trip.” Narcissa’s head grew smaller, so Remus knew she was backing away from the fireplace. “Thank you for not maiming him, Mr. Lupin. I wish you and Severus great joy. Must run. Ta!”

Blinking into the sizzling embers, Remus blinked. “Holy Merlin, I think...” He grinned and then laughed out loud. “Maybe it was a good thing I didn’t send young Malfoy.”

~)*(~

Remus almost fell through the Floo at Harry’s, he was moving so fast. When he ran into someone, he put an arm out. When that someone put both arms around him, he looked down, a frown on his face. Then he saw who it was.

“Oh, Severus, I’ve missed you,” he breathed out. Then he put both hands on Severus’ head to hold him still and kissed him with everything in his heart. The applause of the Potters, Weasleys, and the hooting of Draco Malfoy and Teddy Lupin went on for three minutes before Severus pulled back.

“Happy birthday, Lupin,” Severus said in a husky voice. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes sparkled. “Now, this is your party and I’ll expect you to behave for at least an hour.”

Remus laughed and hugged Severus close before turning, one arm around Severus’ shoulders. “Best birthday ever, Severus.” 

Teddy ran up and hugged them both. “Did you know he was coming, Dad? I like Mr. Snape. Can he come for a visit?” he babbled, his hair cycling through the colours of the rainbow.

“He can stay with us as long as he wants, Teddy.” Remus looked at Severus. “Forever would work for me.”

“Good to know I’m the gift that’s welcome,” Severus said with a happy twist of his lips.

“Godfather, you’re welcome everywhere, but Mr. Lupin is the only one here that won’t throw you out after three days.” Draco hid behind Harry and Ginny, a cheeky grin on his face.

Everyone laughed. Remus held onto Severus. Teddy grinned happily as he fetched plates of food for both his fathers. Later everyone would talk about how happy Remus was and how proud Teddy was. All in all, it was a most memorable birthday.

§¤§¤*§*¤§¤§ 

_~~~ Comments, like rain in the desert, are greatly appreciated.  
Thank you for reading. ~~~_  



End file.
